Making some home made frozen ice pops and keeping a steady supply of them going is my top tip for keeping the kids cool.

For an alternative to fruit juice, cut up fresh fruit and freeze in coconut water. And if you don’t have an ice pop mould, then easy alternatives are to freeze the yoghurt tubes or stick a popsicle stick in a yoghurt and freeze.

Get your child to help make ice paints, they will then enjoy making some cold art after the paints are ready.

This ice painting project from Easy Peasy and Fun uses different colours of food colouring to make coloured ice cubes that the kids can then “paint” with. Great for toddlers who might take a cheeky ‘taste test’ of their paints.

Pop your sunscreen tubes/containers into the fridge. It’ll help cool the kids down when you go to apply it!

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This makes another cool (and healthy) snack idea and it couldn’t be more simple. Just freeze any fruit that your child enjoys, for example:

• watermelon slices
• bananas – you could slice them lengthways for a long banana-pop
• grapes (only for older kids)
• berries
• apple slices
• Mango slices
• pineapple chunks

Make fun homemade fans with some paper, glue and a stick. These Flower and Watermelon fans are cute!

Insulated water bottles are a great investment as they keep water cold for the whole day, but they can be expensive if you need several for the family.

A great alternative that we always do when it’s hot, or we are staying in a hot country for our holidays, is to freeze bottles of water overnight to take out and use during the day – the ice will melt and keep the water lovely and cold as you go.

Tip: Remember, don’t fill the bottle completely full as the water expands as it freezes.

Love this idea for sponge water bombs from Positively Splendid. She made sponge bombs from different coloured sponges.

And when you have made the sponge bombs, the kids can soak, squish, throw and play with them.

It’s important to keep the kids well hydrated but after a while normal water gets boring and you don’t want to give them too many soda pops or too much high juice with sugar. So why not try making or buying fruit infused water to keep sugar intake down? These lovely recipes from Momadvice.com should inspire you.

Make up some water balloons and let the kids loose in the garden!

You can use regular party balloons in place of water balloons, but they may not pop as readily as dedicated water-fight balloons. Water balloons tend to be smaller than air and helium balloons, and they are usually made from a thinner material.

…or how about making some colourful frozen water balloons?

Cooling certain pulse points on your body e.g. wrists, back of neck, hands, feet, face and ears, cooling any of these can help bring your overall body temperature down. Either use cold water on a flannel, an ice pack, or ice cubes in a paper towel, and chill the pulse points.

If you place a large bowl of ice or some frozen water bottles in front of the fan that will cool the air that the fan circulates around the room.

What a fun idea from Play at Home Mom for making ice bricks. She used different containers to make different sized and differently coloured ice bricks which her son had fun playing with.

Fill a bucket or bowl with water and some toys or household items (e.g. figurines, LEGO blocks, etc), freeze it, and let your kids have fun melting it.

Here’s a fun idea from Pinterest making a dinosaur ice cube.

Use a cooled spray bottle to spritz their faces or necks to help them cool down. Add ice to your spray bottle if you’re heading off somewhere, to help keep the water cool.